K+S vows new Canadian mine will not undermine prices

K+S vows new Canadian mine will not undermine prices

German potash miner K+S vowed it would not have to undercut rivals on price as it brings 2 million tonnes of new potash capacity to the North American market next year.

Faced with the gradual depletion of its domestic reserves over the next 35 to 40 years, K+S built its new Bethune mine, previously known as Legacy, in western Canada even as many experts describe the North American market as oversupplied.

“We will not undermine our price levels from the additional volumes that we will get out of Bethune,” Chief Executive Norbert Steiner, who will hand over to finance chief Burkhard Lohr this week, told analysts during a call to discuss quarterly results.

“Our customers have asked us to ship more than we were able to do, this is now the time where we can sell more to them… This will not be pushed into the market with, let’s say, brutality, we wanted to maintain decent price levels and so far we have never undercut price levels in the past and we will continue to act in this way,” he added.

He said while output capacity will be ramped up to 2 million tonnes per year in 2018, the company expects actual output to be in the 1.7 to 1.8 million tonne range.